I'm with Antics, I think there are actually a couple of us on here.

We're releasing V4 of Antics in the next few days, with improved SU import. The importer was added to our last release and was very well received. There seems to be a real crossover between Antics users and SU users. So we've tweaked the importer a little in V4 to make it even easier to use, based on feedback so far (some from this forum!).

If anyone wants any help with animating their SU models in Antics then please feel free to give me a shout. Or there's an entire area on the Antics forum just for SU tips and tricks.

Gary

Hi,

If you want to animate your SketchUp props then Antics really is the easiest way. Once you get over the fact it's a separate app, it's about as easy as animation can get. Like SketchUp, Antics is also available as a free download. You just import your SketchUp model straight into Antics, then use point and click to direct your model around.

Depending upon the model you are importing you may need to do some configuration (e.g. assign a speed to a car model). Then you can click on a point on the floor and the car will move there, or draw a path and have the car follow that. There are tutorials on the Antics forum which take you through the process, as Mr S mentioned. You can then direct your action and render it out as a video.

Disclaimer alert - I do work for Antics, but I would still say this even if I didn't!

I'm more than happy to answer any questions you may have. Either post up here or PM me.

Gary Conway
(Antics)

Hi John, many thanks for the model, I'll feed your suggestions back to the tutorials team.

In the meantime we do have a short video that shows you how to import a model of a baseball stadium and get Antics characters animated:
http://www.antics3d.com/media/media/tutorial/01_sketchup_tutorial.wmv

It focusses on pulling content in from Google Warehouse, but the principle is the same if you imported your own SU models.

With regard to getting familiar with Antics as quickly as possible, we have two new workshops which are a great place to start. Each workshop is split into two parts, and they will quickly take you through the basics of using Antics and then onto some more advanced features. Each workshop has it's own Antics project that you can download so you can follow the action in the video for yourself.

The workshops are here:
http://www.antics3d.com/index.php?action=content&content_id=138

And finally there's a tutorial video for just about any aspect of Antics you might want to know more about here:

http://www.antics3d.com/index.php?action=content&content_id=52

I can assure you that anyone who downloads the free BasePack will not be getting any spam from us, and we're certainly not in the business of harvesting contact details and selling them on!

I completely appreciate that the download is more complicated than it should be. Essentially this is because the free version of Antics is still tied in with our pay-for content delivery system. So unfortunately the only way to get your hands on the download is to go through the charade of 'buying' Antics for $0. This is something we're looking at as a matter of urgency with a view to separating out the free download. We don't want to put obstacles in people's way!

If anyone has had the time to play around with it, we would love to hear what you think of V3.1, in particular the SU import. And of course if you have any questions just let us know.

Gary Conway
Antics

There are a couple of ways you can get SU objects moving around in an Antics scene. Antics has a 'Create Path' tool, so the easiest way would be to draw out the path you want the object to follow, then command the object to 'snap to' or 'blend to' the path. The path can be edited as required, raised off the 'ground', moved around the scene and so on.

Alternatively, in the object's properties you could assign it a speed (in metres per second). Once the object has a speed you can use the 'Direct' tool to simply point and click where you want the object to go to.

You can then right-click on the object, select 'Edit Pivot' and control which way the object points as it follows the path.

So it's certainly possible to import an SU model into Antics and animate it as you wish.

There's a new 'Tips & Tricks' area on our forum dedicated to SU, it has some FAQs and is a great place to start.

http://antics3d.com/forum.php?action=topics&cat_id=24

We don't have a tutorial specifically for animating SU models as yet, but we do have a new SketchUp overview tutorial which gives a bit more detail than the one I posted earlier:
http://www.antics3d.com/index.php?action=tutorial_category&category_id=1

Hi,

I'm also with Antics, I just wanted to let you know that we've just made our latest version available. The big news in V3.1 is that you can now import SketchUp models directly into Antics. Another great feature is that you can browse the Google 3D Warehouse from within Antics, choose from the thousands of free models available, then drop that model straight into your Antics scene.

There's a short video that shows you how it all works here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uC9ZIeEadqQ

We're really excited about these new features and hope you will give Antics a try. It's still available as a free download. You can get the fully featured unrestricted Basepack from http://www.antics3d.com and use it for as long as you want.

Enjoy!